


Lights Over Manhattan

by stelliferous_sky



Series: Age of Galra (Invasion AU) [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, But using their canon names, Hunk is mentioned, Kind of Leakira AU, Light Angst, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post Galra invasion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 23:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16881087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelliferous_sky/pseuds/stelliferous_sky
Summary: In a world over-run by purple aliens, one wrong move can cost your life. Lance comes home late and Keith is not impressed.





	Lights Over Manhattan

**Author's Note:**

> I need to admit that this is very much a spur-of-the-moment thing and I don't really know where I'm going with this. It was really fun to write and I hope to add more parts to the series but it's unlikely I'll be writing every single part of the story, just the interesting ones.
> 
> If you would like to read in chronological order, I'd recommend you read Part 2 (Along for the Ride) first as that is when Keith and Lance first meet.

  It’s past midnight when Lance gets back. There are sirens blaring in the distance and screams tearing through the stale air. First there’s only a ruffle of jackets and soft footsteps outside before the door slides open with a grating noise, barely wide enough for a body to pass through. He doesn’t turn the lights on, fumbling around quietly as he takes the boots off and hangs his belt on the hooks with clanks.

  “Where the hell were you?” Keith asks, sitting at the rickety table in the dark.

  “ _Shit!_ ” Lance barks and leaps, crashing into the door. “Dude, don’t scare me like that!”

   Keith stands, pushing the chair back loud enough to let Lance know he’s pissed. He marches up to Lance, shoving his face into the other boy’s. “I thought you were dead out there!”

  Even with a tiny bit of light that comes in from the kitchen window, Lance’s eyes, one blue and own brown, glint as he grins but there’s something heavy hidden there. “Takes more than an alien invasion to kill me, Keith. Have a bit of faith. ‘Sides, I got us food.”

  “Foo-” Keith can’t even finish the word because he’s fuming. “Our faces are all over the city! They’re out for our blood. You can’t just come and go as you please, Lance.”

  This finally ticks Lance off. The grin drops and he pushes Keith back by the shoulders. “I’m not allowed out but you can go blowing up Galra facilities? Is that it?”

  Keith reels. “What? No! I just- You were out for hours and I didn’t even know where you were going. We had a deal, Lance.”

  Lance turns around, shrugging his jacket off and slinging it onto the back of a wobbling chair, gripping the wood hard enough to make it creak. Keith stares at his back, waiting and waiting until Lance’s shoulders sag. It’s a thing Lance does. In the initial days of taking the boy in, this drove Keith crazy and he would yell at Lance for being stupid and Lance would yell back and the whole thing would spiral out of control so quickly, so greatly they wouldn’t look at each other for days.

  But Keith has learnt to read Lance like a book within these two years. Turns out, it’s not really that hard. So Keith waits.

  “I went to look for my family,” Lance says quietly.

  “Again? You know-”

  Lance turns, half-frantic as he digs fingers into his hair. “No, Keith. I can’t just not look for them. They’re alive. I know they are. I need to find them.”

  Keith pauses, takes a moment to gather his thoughts. He doesn’t understand Lance. He’s never had a family, living on the streets and avoiding the cops – he refused to stay in orphanages – before the Galra invaded Earth. But Lance has a family larger than life, colourful, bubbly and warm. And missing.

  Before Lance, Keith has never had someone to care for and he likes to think he still has nothing to lose, no one to miss. But it’s pretty hard when everything he has to lose looks like he’s about to break down.

  “I know,” Keith admits softly, stepping closer. “I get that you’re worried and you miss your family, Lance. But you can’t keep disappearing. What if something happens to you?” _What if you don’t come home to me?_ “I won’t even know where to look.” _I don’t want to be waiting forever._

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to put more burden on you than I already am.”

  Keith wants to reach out and touch Lance’s face, the scar across his left brow, but he’s not brave so he puts out a gloved hand. Lance smiles tightly as he pulls Keith in by the hand and hold him in a half hug. Keith really does try not to melt and he doesn’t really want to know if he succeeds. All he knows is that he wants a full hug, perhaps more.

  “You’re not a burden. Next time, I’ll help you look,” Keith offers, even though Lance has never taken him up on that before.

  “Thank you. Now let’s go eat those burgers before the mice take them. I’m starving and I’ve also got some interesting news.”

*

  They eat on the roof, leaning against a half-collapsed elevator shaft. Eating here has become a bit of a ritual after particularly bad days or run-ins with the Galra where they barely make it out alive, much less in one piece. From here they can see the sky, sometimes covered by Galra ships far enough away that they won’t be spotted. There’s also the city that’s falling into shambles, billboards flickering, buildings collapsed and maglev trains abandoned on rails. At least on this side of the city.

  Far away, there are still neon lights glaring from the Galra-occupied sector.

  “Where did you get these from?” Keith asks while stuffing the burger into his mouth. It’s been years since he had a burger.

  Lance watches him with that lop-sided smile that twists Keith’s stomach. “I ran into a guy. He was a slave at this restaurant but he saw me digging through their trash and took pity. I hope he’s not in too much trouble.”

  “Holy-” Keith takes another bite. The meat. Holy crap, this is actual meat, juicy and meaty meat that doesn’t come from expired cans. He really hopes the guy who made this isn’t trouble.

  Lance laughs and puts his half-eaten burger in front of Keith. “You have it. Watching you enjoy it is enough for me. Man, you’re adorable.”

  Once upon a time, Keith would’ve choked and died on the spot. But over the past years, he’s slowly gotten used to Lance’s casual compliments. He still has no idea if Lance is like that with everyone else because they haven’t been around other people enough but a part of him really hopes not. That part really wants to be special. It’s kind of pathetic.

  Keith pushes it back. “No. Tell me about the news.”

  Lance nods and settles himself against the wall comfortably, sliding down. “Right, so I had a chat with Hunk, the burger guy, and apparently there’s some sort of underground resistance happening.”

  Now Keith is listening. (He’s still eating too but he gives Lance the rest of his attention.)

  “He doesn’t know everything,” Lance continues. “He just gets like snippets of information from the Galra but he’s pretty sure they’re also having some sort of problem with a hacker in their systems. Hunk doesn’t know if the hacker and the resistance are related but he suggested I try to track down the resistance if I want to find my family.”

  “Do you... Do you want to try?”

  “I do. I mean, I’m not gonna make you come with me because I know you like working solo or whatever but I think I have to take this chance.”

  That means Lance would leave. Bright, lovable Lance who has kept Keith sane and alive, the longest constant he’s ever had in his life. The moment Keith saved Lance from bleeding out on the street, he knew there would come a day they parted ways. But... selfishly Keith isn’t ready to let go.

  “I’ll come with you.”

  Lance blinks, slow and owlish, before his face softens. “Really?”

  “Yeah. We’re a team, right?”

  A huge grin breaks out over Lance’s beautiful face as he throws an arm around Keith’s shoulder and pulls him in. “We’re a great team. Thanks, Keith.”

  Keith could’ve stayed there the whole night, tucked up in Lance’s side and pretending his heart isn’t racing, pretending he doesn’t want more. He would’ve if not for a pyramid-shaped object flying in their direction.

  “Drone. Drone, Lance, go!” he hisses, shoving the other boy off.

  They scramble up, darting into the half-collapsed elevator shaft, tucking themselves under a grove made by the fallen roof. They hold their breath, pressing closer as the whirr of the drone passes slowly.

  Keith thanks everything out there that drones can’t detect heartbeats because he’s sure his would be like a distress beacon. Lance is practically in his lap, one of his hands braced on the wall next to Keith and the other holds the roof like his hand alone could stop the thing from falling apart whenever it wants.

  Lance looks at him. He realises about the same time that Keith does exactly how close they are and blinks in surprise. _One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three-_

  Lance laughs and draws himself away slightly. Keith laughs too because it’s really awkward and following Lance is probably the only way to make it less awkward.

  “I think it’s gone,” Lance says, scooting out with a lingering pat on Keith’s shoulder.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Let’s go finish our burgers.”

  Keith looks at the hand Lance offers and takes it. He thinks maybe he’d follow Lance anywhere.

**Author's Note:**

> I mean no disrespect to the creators of the show, which I absolutely love and am obsessed with. I simply like the idea of a cyberpunk, Galra-infested world that is inspired by Leakira from Twitter.


End file.
